Filling Stockings While Saving Money

Family get-togethers, parties, gifts, far too many expectations from young and old…when you don’t have a big budget, what can you do? Well, with planning and creativity, a little money can go further and do more. Find some great ideas on how to save money this December in books at your local library.

 Need to host a party? Diane Warner’s Great Parties on Small Budgets can help you make cost-saving choices for parties for all ages. This book has fun and affordable ways to pull it off on a small budget, including everything from the invitations, to the decorations, entertainment, and party menu. It includes party plans and tasty yet affordable recipes for beverages, snacks, appetizers, adult fare, and children’s party foods.

You’ll need to cook. There are lots of cookbooks at your library, but some of them have you in mind instead of just the ingredients.

Canadian Living’s The Affordable Feasts Collection: Budget-Friendly Family Meals is a cookbook that helps home cooks stretch their grocery budget without sacrificing flavour or quality. Recipes are family-focused, with options for both day-to-day dinners and special occasion meals. 

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook : Waste-not Recipes for the Wise Cook by Lara Starr features recipes like “Exponential Chicken” that stretches the bird over five different courses! With hundreds of dishes and expert advice, this cookbook helps readers live well and eat better. Just thinking about the food prep takes up a lot of time and energy.

But there are other fun things to do in the month of December. Decorating can be ridiculously costly or homemade and meaningful. Fun Christmas Crafts to Make and Bake: Over 60 Festive Projects to Make with Your Kids by Anni Rigg and Craft It Up : Christmas Around the World : 35 Fun Craft Projects Inspired by Traveling Adventures by Libby Abadee are two books on fun and beautiful crafts that will involve all members of your family, teach new skills and promote learning about other cultures.

And lastly, you will feel the pressure to give. Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself and Wrap with Style by Dinah Corley is a book that can help. No need to brave the malls when you can make unique and valued gifts in your kitchen at low cost! The recipes range from simple to sophisticated, including chapters on Small Tokens, Big Batches, and Penny Wise for budget gifts, as well as level of difficulty and prep time.

May this December be a season of peace for you and yours.

Laura Bilyea, Librarian, Mississauga Library System

 Originally Published in Tough Times

Need it? Make it!

A brilliant way to combine being creative, learning new skills and saving money is to try some DIY or Maker-culture projects. Instead of buying something new, why not make your own, repair what you have or repurpose it, buy used or sell your own stuff? Don’t give in to the consumer culture or to cheaper alternatives—you can make better stuff than that! Here are some books to get you started.

Put 'em up! fruit : a preserving guide & cookbook : creative ways to put 'em up, tasty ways to use 'em up 

Brooks, Sherri Vinton 2013

Call number:  641.64 VIN

A preserving guide and cookbook all in one! This creative collection has 80 inventive recipes for preserving 18 kinds of fruit, but it also has 80 recipes for using your preserves in main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and cocktails. The flavors are fresh and contemporary, and the instructions are thorough and easy to follow. Putting up the harvest has never been so delicious! 

Fix, repair & replace : upgrade your home like a pro! 

Family handyman.

Reader’s Digest Association, 2012

Call number: 643.7 FIX

The editors at the Family Handyman magazine have packed this practical guide with expert advice, step-by-step directions, and clear photos and illustrations to help you ensure a fix and not a failure. Whether you're interested in plumbing, tiling, woodworking, insulating, or electrical repair, you'll find it inside. Get set to take on all kinds of do-it-yourself projects!

Handmade chic : fashionable projects that look high-end, not homespun

Bennett, Laura  2012

Call number: 646.48 BEN

 In Handmade Chic: Fashionable Projects That Look High-End, Not Homespun, Laura Bennett shares simple strategies for creating 40 small luxuries and high-fashion accessories. Bennett offers patterns, easy-to-follow diagrams, and detailed instructions for fabricating each glamorous project, whether it involves sewing from scratch or embellishing a pre-purchased garment.

Toss, keep, sell! : the suddenly frugal guide to cleaning out the clutter and cashing in

Ingram, Leah, 2010

Call number: 648.5 ING

The American house is one cluttered place. Frugal folks need to get their homes in order and find ways to make money from the junk they no longer need or want. Organized by rooms of the house and tasks of the day, this book becomes a veritable clutter checklist. With Leah Ingram as your guide, you'll have extra money--and a home you can be proud of--in no time!

Wise craft : turning thrift store finds, fabric scraps, and natural objects into stuff you love

Stocker, Blair 2014

Call number:  745 STO

Wise Craft is a guide to the homemade life, turning old things into special new objects that enhance the home. The book is divided into four seasonal chapters, with designs that reflect different holidays and the changing seasons, allowing you to update your home according to the weather outside. Many projects are portable or perfect to do during a family movie night, making the Wise Craft lifestyle an easy one to attain.

Call or drop in to your local library for these titles and more!

Laura Bilyea,

Librarian

Mississauga Library System

Originally published in Tough Times

Slow Day

Today, the wind is blowing, the bones are aching, the chill is definitely in the air, but I'm slow. On a day like today, when autumn really is giving it over, I'd figure I'd be fidgeting with getting things done, getting warm and dry, but I'm slow. And man, it feels good to be slow.

I'm probably coming down with something. The kids are sick so my turn is waiting. Nonetheless, after weeks of being on edge, abrasive and unable to focus, this slowness is precious to me. I can rest. I can think. I will not push. I will wait.

I'm not part of the pounding surf, the gusty trees, the rain-soaked slap in the face. I'm a tiny harbour with no wind. The storm will get here, I'm pretty sure, but for now I'll be still.

Finding "home" at the Library

 Public libraries all over the world have regular visitors who do not have permanent homes. Libraries are warm, comfortable places that are open to all and can provide hours of engagement, as well as a place to connect with necessary social services.

The library is also full of stories, true or almost true, about people who are homeless, or by people who love someone who is.

Real stories: Travels with Lizbeth by Lars Eighner.

As Lars wrote, “When I began writing this account I was living under a shower curtain in a stand of bamboo in a public park. I did not undertake to write about homelessness, but wrote what I knew, as an artist paints a still life, not because he is especially fond of fruit, but because the subject is readily at hand.” This is Lars Eighner’s account of one man’s experience of homelessness, a story of physical survival, and the triumph of the artistic spirit in the face of enormous adversity.



Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton.

Brandon Stanton set out to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City. Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in his attempt to capture ordinary New Yorkers in the most extraordinary of moments. The result of these efforts was “Humans of New York,” a vibrant blog and, with four hundred color photos, Humans of New York is the book inspired by the blog.





Looking Glass Brother by Peter von Ziegesar.

After a string of affairs, author Peter’s father left his mother and remarried. Several stepchildren, including Little Peter, entered von Ziegesar’s life from the looking glass of his father’s new family. Little Peter was an angelic and brilliant young boy who spiraled down during adolescence to become one more homeless man living on the street. In this big-hearted memoir, Peter von Ziegesar tells us about the responsibility he feels for his brother, a man with the same name as his, but a man who lives a desperate and very different life.



No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and Other Transgressions by Ryan Berg.

Ryan Berg tells stories from the frontlines of LGBTQ homelessness and foster care. Berg, a young social worker, faced young people who have battled extreme poverty, experienced unbalanced opportunities, structural racism, and homophobia.







Junior Fiction: Paper Things by Jennifer Jacobson.
Told in an open, authentic voice, this nuanced story of hiding in plain sight may have young readers thinking about homelessness in a whole new way. When Ari’s mother died four years ago, she had two fi nal wishes: that Ari and her older brother, Gage, would stay together always, and that Ari would go to Carter, the middle school for gifted students. Suffering in foster care, the siblings leave and try to make it on their own, but one of these promises may have to be broken.


Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate.

 In her first children’s novel since The One and Only Ivan, winner of the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience. Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Crenshaw is a large, outspoken and imaginary cat. He has come back into Jackson’s life to help him. In unexpected ways, friends matter, whether real or imaginary.




Laura Bilyea is a librarian in Mississauga Library System

Originally published in Tough Times

Refugee Readings

As Syrian refugees are welcomed to Peel Region, many Peel residents are reaching out to help with food and clothing donations or sponsorship. Libraries want to help, too. Your local library has books for adults and children in Arabic, plus resources in print, audio and on-line to help Arabic speakers learn English. Mississauga Library System runs free children’s programs intended for the whole family, such as Welcome to Canada story-time, for learning new words and Canadian concepts, Conversation Circles for adults, employment workshops for newcomers, settlement workers are in the libraries and will connect customers to the social services they need.

Want to learn more? Here are books in Mississauga libraries that can help deepen our understanding of life as a refugee.

City of thorns: Nine lives in the world’s largest refugee camp by Ben Rawlence

With deep compassion, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.



From bombs to books: The remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school by David Starr
Starr shares the stories of his students and their parents, and tells about the teachers and others who dedicate themselves to making a difference in their lives. His students are hopeful and resilient despite the traumas they have faced.





Frontier Justice: the global refugee crisis and what to do about it by Andy Lamey.

 An examination of “temporary” refugee camps that are becoming a permanent feature of world crisis zones.






Originally published in Tough Times

An Ode to Spare time

Motherhood has more benefits, blessings, than can be counted. This is a true statement. I know that becoming a mother has been a great boon to me as a human being. But, as I move into seventeen years as a mother, I am beginning to identify one particular deficiency in my life.

This issue is with the ownership of my brain.

Now one would think that with the many demands on your mind that having three children would require, your mind would hone, sharpen and become the perfect tool for solving all of life's problems. Because that's my job, right? I resolve all conflicts, remove all clothing stains, fix all baking disasters and remain beatific throughout. Always.

I'm glad you don't agree. There's too much pressure in that.

However, between working full-time and being a mother and wife, I do find that having time for my own thinking, my own creativity, my own aspirations, is compromised. It's no one's fault. It's just that "my brain is full" before I start. (Yes, I'm picturing Gary Larson's Far Side, too, but found out I can't post it)

Clearly, I need a bigger brain. I'll work on that in my spare time.

It awaits

I find myself thinking of it as a malevolent force that constantly waits to ambush me. Like a hulking darkness that hides in the forest just outside my wee house, I can feel its presence.

It can approach so quietly, almost gently, over the course of a few hours, that I am not aware that it has infiltrated. But it has, through cracks and familiar places, until all of a sudden I realize that its taint has smudged everything inside my tiny house. There is nowhere that I can go that it will not have smeared. Nowhere but sleep.

Doesn't the vampire have to ask if it can come in? Not this beast.

Living with chronic pain means that the days that it does not hold dominion are precious. Some of those days I push myself to accomplish more than I should. I think that perhaps I can banish the beast deeper into the wilds of the forest with my control over my small house, stretching my power even to the grounds outside.

I know it will return. Sometimes it comes as a fierce storm and I have to surrender my house to it utterly. Other times it arrives in the cruel guise of an old friend.

Keeping my enemies even closer, I guess.

Beautiful Storyteller

There are stories of beauty everywhere, tales of affection and of powerful love.

These are tiny stories that cannot be captured by art or words. A sudden cool breeze on a too-hot day. Dappled sunlight through green wide leaves. A glance of love--wondering and reassurance--between a young son and his father. The sing-song vowels of a baby.

And you feel a rush; a sense of being loved. Because you are Loved.

He tells His stories differently than we do.

Death of the Interloper

What can one say about a Canadian July so hot and dry that the weeds are starting die off? When they won out over the frail plants I'd expected to be there, I wasn't surprised, but when even they can't thrive?  Well, that's saying something and it just ain't good.

Yeesh.

February Robin

I was surprised to see a robin this morning. This is not him, but a beautiful photo @ Gavatron I found on Flickr that very much looks like how I found him. He was alone, not in a small flock like you usually see robins after they've made the trip back north. High in a crab apple tree, fluffed up to fend off the cold, surrounded by frozen treats still hanging on the branches. He did not look happy to be here--I wonder if he got the memo from the wrong ground hog. I hope he likes frozen fruit! That may be all there is to eat for a while...

Inspiration rises earlier than the worm

I am not a morning person. 

I am the opposite of such a brain-addled creature, preferring the dark recesses of my bed far past what could be deemed socially responsible. 

However.

If I do rise before the dawn--which is an easy venture in the dark days of February--and sit at my computer to write, I find I have a clarity of mind and a sharpness of purpose unattainable at any other time of day.  Email does not tempt me, neither does the laundry in the dryer, nor the clutter in the kitchen. I don't want to read or eat; even my coffee, usually thick with sugar and milk, must be black if I am to drink while writing in the early morning darkness.   

It's all about the story. It fills my head, my room, and all the waiting, pressing world; it blocks out the rising sun and takes the foremost place in all my attention.

It is magical. It is rare. Why?

Because I am NOT a morning person. 

Curses!

The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality and the Financial Crisis

I didn’t really know much about Ayn Rand. I definitely didn’t know the causes of the economic downturn of 2008. I thought I had a good understanding of American politics. If you read Darryl Cunningham’s graphic nonfiction book The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis, you will learn how much more you didn’t know.

It is said that the proof of your intelligence is in your ability to communicate effectively the big ideas that you have.  Using this sentence as a metre stick, I’d have to say (a) my intelligence appears to need work and (b) Darryl Cunningham is an awfully smart man. Using a graphic format to discuss these intricate and multi-layered themes is pure genius. The book is divided into 3 major sections: the first is on the life of Ayn Rand and the people that she influenced, the second is on the how and why of the economic crash of 2008 and the third is on American politics as viewed through the alternating filters of altruism and selfishness.

A way to sum up much of the book is in this graphic format:

Ayn Rand + rabid followers (including Alan Greenspan) = “collective”

Randian philosophy = objectivism [(selfishness = virtue) + (altruism = moral failure)]

Alan Greenspan (@ Ronald Reagan) = Chairman of Federal Reserve for 4 Presidents (spanning 3 decades)

U.S. Government adoption of Randian philosophy (“taxation = theft”) = U.S. Government reduces regulation of banking

Banks go power-crazy = messy recession; felt worldwide.

Cunningham does have a solution. He thinks that conservativism has won the day but that liberals need to reassert themselves in American politics (despite the current liberals in power) to bring back true altruism. Cunningham doesn't like conservatives. They "prize hard work, orderliness, and structure...are goal oriented." Liberals, however, "are risk takers...are experimental in their lifestyle choices and self-expression. They are tolerant of different perspectives and values." Cunningham is very sorry but you fit into only one political affiliation or the other. There are no other options. He actually goes so far as to insinuate that these are psychologically defined distinctions that divide all of us into two camps.

Too bad the rest of the world doesn't work out of a two-party system. Canadians don't get mentioned at all. The British don't get much press either, perhaps because they have a four-party system, with voices from seven other parties mixed in. 

Here's another take on this dilemma:

Author Hypothesis:

Selfishness + American political system (Tea Partyists) = need more liberals to fix it.

Reader Doubt:

Psychological profiling of liberals and conservatives = reduction of all people into 2-party system thinking

Reductive thinking = all theses in the book may be skewed

The bottom line is that this book has excellent polemics, but the proposed ideas are still open for debate.  

This article was first published on the Mississauga Library System's Nonfiction Book Club Blog